SelfHelp Books For Depression: A Scoping Review

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Self-Help Books For Depression A Scoping Review

• Rachel Richardson
• Department of Health Sciences
• University of York

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Background

• NICE Guidelines on Depression 2004
• National Service Framework Review 2004
• Prevalence of depression -1 in 6 with neurotic
  disorder (ONS 2001)
• Volume of available titles

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Inclusion Criteria

• Be easily accessible
• Be aimed at a general adult audience
• Be based around psychological approaches
• Offer more than just information.

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Search

• Catalogues of online bookstores
• British Library catalogue
• Books recommended or available via patient or
  professional websites
• Books recommended by book prescription schemes.

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Results
Books Identified 190
Unavailable 59
Obtained 131
Excluded 34
Data Extracted 97

1University of York, 2University
of Leeds
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Psychological Model
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Readability

• Wide range of reading ages (lt10 years to 17)
• The median reading age of the books was 14.5.
• 40 in 15-17 age range
• 12 million people in employment with literacy
  skills at level 1 or below

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Structure

• Median no of chapters - 14 (3-92)
• Median chapter length 14pgs (2-37)
• CBT books no more readable than books based on
  other psychological models

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Conclusions

• These publications were extremely diverse in both
  structure and content
• Potential readers may have difficulty using some
  of the books which had long chapters and high
  reading ages
• The psychological models behind the majority of
  these books did not reflect current NICE
  guidelines

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Other Evidence

• There is weak evidence that suggests that
  bibliotherapy, based on a cognitive behavioural
  therapy approach is useful for some people when
  they are given some additional guidance
• Anderson et al. Self-help books for depression
  how can practitioners and patients make the right
  choice? British Journal of General Practice 2005
  55 387-392.

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Other Evidence

• Studies using a guided model reported a
  significantly higher effect size than those using
  pure self-help
• Only guided versus pure remained significant
  in the multivariate analysis
• Gellatly et al. What makes self-help
  interventions effective in the management of
  depressive symptoms? Meta-analysis and meta
  regression. Psychological Medicine 2007. In
  Press.